US lawmakers take aim at North Korea over terrorism

WASHINGTON – The House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved legislation calling for North Korea to be redesignated as a state sponsor of terrorism, alongside Iran, Sudan and Syria.

North Korea was taken off the list in 2008 to smooth the way for aid-for-disarmament negotiations that collapsed soon after.

The bill approved Thursday calls for the State Department to assess whether purported acts by North Korea constitute support for international terrorism. Those acts include assassinations of dissidents and weapons sales to militant groups.

The legislation still has to clear the full House and Senate, and there's little time left in the congressional calendar.

A recent State Department survey of terrorism worldwide says North Korea is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the 1987 bombing of South Korean airliner.